Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Aquilegia ecalcarata

 
Aquilegia ecalcarata
spurless columbine
Aquilegia ecalcarata

Synonym(s) Semiaquilegia ecalcarata
Common name spurless columbine
Family ranunculaceae
Life cycle perennial (Z6-9)
Flowers dusky pink-violet (May)
Size 12"
Light sun-part shade
Cultural notes ordinary garden soil, well-drained
From seed give 2 months cold, then germinate at room temperature
detailed seed-starting info below
Seed ripensearly July

Small upright plant with deeply lobed forest green columbine-like leaves, reddish on the back. Spurless dusky pink pouched flowers. Rock garden or front of border.

spurless columbine
In early spring it can be tricky to decide if newly emerging columbinish plants are last year's semiaquilegias, or random seedlings from common columbines - at least, until you learn to tell the difference. The leaves are similar in shape, but the purplish stems and splayed-open appearance of the spurless ones aren't too hard to recognize.
Aquilegia ecalcarata

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

Seed for this plant is included on my seed trade list

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Aquilegia ecalcarata

Visitors to this page have left the following comments

Brian WgnerNov 23, 2024Thank you for sharing all of these trials! There is very little - if any - germination data on this species in the academic journals.

Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from '03 trade. Baggy 35F (2m) - 70F (75%G, 2-13d)
  2. Same seed as above. Baggy 35F (2m) - 70F (4w; 40%G, 6-20d)
  3. Seed from '05 garden. Baggy 35F (8w) - 70F (45%G, 3-9d)
  4. Seed from '06 garden. Baggy 35F (8w; germination started 8th wk) - 70F (total 85%G, 0-8d)
  5. Seed from '06 garden. Baggy 35F (8w) - 70F (55%G, 3-13d)
  6. Seed from '06 garden. Baggy 35F (8w) - 70F (30%G, 3-11d)
  7. Seed from '09 garden. Baggy 35F (8w) - 70F (68%G, 3-10d)
  8. Seed from '09 garden. Baggy 35F (8w) - 70F (58%G, 4-13d)
  9. Seed from '11 garden. Baggy 35F (8w) - 70F (82%G, 4-10d)
  10. Seed from '12 garden. Baggy 35F (9w) - 70F (72%G, 4-12d)
  11. Seed from '12 garden. Baggy 35F (8w) - 70F (48%G, 7-17d)
  12. Seed from '12 garden. Baggy 35F (7w) - 70F (50%G, 5-16d)

Apparently loses viability fairly quickly. It sets plenty of seed, so it isn't difficult to collect fresh seed every year.

I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments

home garden plants wildlife seed plant sale topics guestbook journal plantlinks

Last modified: March 28, 2014
Contact me